Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The government's committed to ensuring that young Australians have the skills they need for our future workforce in the increasingly important STEM disciplines—science, technology, engineering and maths. STEM education promotes problem solving, critical analysis and creative thinking amongst the next generation of students. I'm delighted to inform the House of a STEM success story from my local community on the Gold Coast—the Pacific Pines Techgirls. Last year they competed in the Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero competition. They competed against over 1,000 other students from 260 teams, and they not only won the Queensland state title but also went on to win the national competition. On behalf of my local community I'd love to congratulate the Pacific Pines Techgirls team: Courtney Hall, Emi Reed, Isabelle Matthew, Jasmine Sutton and Milla McCashney. Well done, girls, on an outstanding job.

The girls built an app that's been endorsed by the Queensland Cancer Council called SunFun. The app is designed to help kids understand the importance of sun safety in a fun but informative manner. The Pacific Pines Techgirls will now represent Australia on the global stage by competing in the Global Technovation Challenge in the United States. The Technovation Challenge helps develop and encourage girls from all over the world to learn and apply the skills needed to solve real-world problems through tech. On behalf of my local community, I wish the team the best of luck. I know they'll do Australia proud on the global stage.

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